Robert William Hughes
| Robert William Hughes | |
|---|---|
| Judge of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia | |
|
In office 1874–1898 |
|
| Nominated by | Ulysses S. Grant |
| Preceded by | John C. Underwood |
| Succeeded by | Edmund Waddill, Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
January 16, 1821 Powhatan County, Virginia |
| Died | December 10, 1901 (aged 80) Abingdon, Virginia |
| Spouse(s) | Eliza M. Johnston |
Robert William Hughes (January 16, 1821 – December 10, 1901) was a Virginia newspaperman, lawyer, and federal judge.
Born at Muddy Creek Plantation in Powhatan County, Virginia, Hughes was of an old Virginia family, whose ancestors came to the area of Powhatan County before 1700, when it was still Goochland County.
He attended Caldwell Institute, Greensboro, North Carolina, then studied law in Fincastle, Virginia.
In 1850, at the Governor's mansion, Hughes married Joseph E. Johnston's niece, Eliza M. Johnston, who was the adopted daughter of then-Governor John B. Floyd.
Hughes practiced law in Richmond from 1846-1853. Among his acquaintances in Richmond was Edgar Allan Poe.
Hughes's son, Robert M. Hughes, was a distinguished Virginia lawyer, and one of the early presidents of the Virginia Bar Association.
From 1850 to 1866, he contributed to a series of newspapers in Richmond and Washington, D.C., primarily the Richmond Examiner. He took over as editor of the Examiner when the regular editor, John Moncure Daniel, left the country as U.S. Minister to Sardinia.
In connection with the statewide elections of 1855, Hughes editorialized against the Know Nothing movement in Virginia, pointing out that Yankees and abolitionists, not immigrants and Roman Catholics, were the true threats to the Southern way of life. "Why are Northern Abolitionists and Know Nothings persecuting and proscribing foreigners and Catholics?" he wrote. "It is because they have always refused to join with them in their outcry against slavery and the South."
In 1857, Hughes left Richmond at the invitation of President James Buchanan to edit the Democratic newspaper, the Washington Union. His papers at the College of William & Mary include, among other things, a receipt for the purchase of two slaves in 1862. Hughes favored secession but was critical of the administration of Jefferson Davis.
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